MRN Top 10 Stories of the Year: Beatles audition, Adrian saga, Hannibal attorney and Rodhouse trial top list
Few will be surprised that the legal fight for former Eighth Circuit Judge Robert Adrian, the legal problems for Hannibal attorney Tyler White and the trial of Austin Rodhouse were among the most popular stories for Muddy River News readers in 2024.
But who could have guessed an interview of an elderly man born in England and living in tiny Bloomfield, an unincorporated community on Illinois Route 336 about nine miles north of Quincy, would have been the top story on the site this year?
Listed below are this year’s top stories, as determined by MRN analytics.
1. Keith Dunford did freelance engineering for Decca Records, which invited the Beatles to audition in late 1962. “This one producer, you could see he was not impressed,” he told MRN’s Ron Kinscherf. “He kept saying, ‘Well, give me another one. Give me another one.’ And I think we must have done 20 songs. Normally we just record four or five. I sensed that Decca was not too impressed.”
2. The Illinois Courts Commission ruled in February that the Judicial Inquiry Board proved “by clear and convincing evidence” that Eighth Circuit Judge Robert Adrian gave untruthful testimony before the Board constituting “willful misconduct” and has ordered him removed from office. “The respondent was deceptive, misleading and gave false testimony under oath,” the ruling said. The Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (IARDC) recommended earlier this month that Adrian should be suspended for two years and until further order of the Illinois Supreme Court.
3. The tick, considered an invasive species, was found on April 12 during routine active tick surveillance in Morgan County as part of an Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) grant-funded active tick surveillance program. Asian longhorned ticks are light brown in color and are very small, often smaller than a sesame seed. The tick is capable of carrying tick-borne diseases that affect cattle.
4. Robert Adrian had until July 31 to respond to a complaint filed with the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) that recommended the former Eighth Judicial Circuit judge be disciplined. Adrian said Friday the ARDC shouldn’t hold its breath. “It’s a waste of everybody’s time,” he said Friday morning. “It just shows how political and corrupt (the ARDC is).”
5. A probable cause statement made by a sergeant with the Missouri State Highway Patrol alleges White crashed a truck on Shelby County Road 356 early in the morning of Sept. 13, injuring a male victim. The victim said he was left overnight in the truck in a cornfield. White eventually transported the victim to a cabin, and when the victim later told White five times he was injured and needed medical attention, White allegedly told him to “shut up.” White’s mother eventually came to the cabin and took the victim to Quincy, dropping him off at the front door of Blessing Hospital. The Missouri Supreme Court suspended White’s law license in December.
6. “Make yourself a bowl of dog food. You’ll eat it on the floor like an obedient bitch.” Assistant State’s Attorney Leecia Carnes didn’t mess around with the first sentence of her opening statement to a jury of eight women and four men during the second day of the Austin Rodhouse trial in Pike County Circuit Court before Judge Charles H.W. Burch. Rodhouse will be sentenced in January.
7. Abby Deming told the story of her son, Emmett, who was born Sept. 20, 2023, with severe Ebstein anomaly, a congenital heart defect that’s present at birth. One in 200,000 children is diagnosed with Ebstein anomaly, and only five percent of those cases are diagnosed as severe. The team of doctors at Children’s Hospital in St. Louis said in June the care Emmett needed was available at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, but finances were a concern. Emmett eventually was transferred to Pittsburgh, then to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston where he died on Sept. 1.
8. Brayden Gabel, 18, of Quincy man was arrested in early March after a short foot chase on the east end of Quincy. Quincy Police officers located a stolen vehicle in the 4300 block of Broadway. The suspect, Gabel, was nearby and fled. After a brief pursuit, he was taken into custody. Gabel eventually pled guilty to unlawful vehicular invasion, a Class 1 felony, and theft of more than $500 but less than $10,000, a Class 3 felony. He was sentenced to 30 months of probation and to Drug Court.
9. Tom Marx, a self-made entrepreneur who ran multiple businesses and developed dozens of properties across Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, died in November at age 74. Marx sold everything from furniture to Christmas trees to fireworks as he expanded his business portfolio. His thumbprint is all along Broadway, Quincy’s main thoroughfare. Retail centers, old and new, are part of the Marx Commercial catalog.
10. A one-day narcotics operation was conducted May 15 in a joint effort between the West Central Illinois Task Force, Adams County Sheriff’s Department, Quincy Police Department and the Illinois State Police. The operation’s primary focus was to target people who distribute and possess narcotics in the Quincy and Adams County area.
The rest of the top 20:
- 11. Human remains found in Hannibal last month identified as local woman missing since 2022
- 12. ‘It’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen in this town’: Evicted couple finally taken to motel after five days in park
- 13. Quincy man out on parole dead following Lewis County shootout, wife remains missing
- 14. A shot in the arm for golf’: Topgolf-like facility expected to open this summer on Knights of Columbus property
- 15. Six arrested following narcotics bust
- 16. Hannibal man facing three felony counts after truckload of trash is collected on county road
- 17. ‘I lied and I lied and I lied’: Kaelin Rickey admits to participating in beating that led to Hannibal man’s death
- 18. Hannibal City Council revokes two Hannibal business licenses and gives Arby’s a two-week extension
- 19. Ralls County man dead after Saturday shooting
- 20. Maestro’s” to open in Downtown Quincy next month
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